


Love, Love, Love

by familylovemichael



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-27
Updated: 2012-11-27
Packaged: 2017-11-19 16:17:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/575195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/familylovemichael/pseuds/familylovemichael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Well, maybe I'm a crook for stealing your heart away<br/>Yeah, maybe I'm a crook for not caring for it<br/>Yeah, maybe I'm a bad, bad, bad... bad person<br/>Well, baby I know.</p>
<p>And these fingertips<br/>Will never run through your skin<br/>And Those bright blue eyes<br/>Can only meet mine across the room<br/>Filled with people that are less important than you</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love, Love, Love

**Author's Note:**

> For Michelle's birthday :] Happy 20th! I hope this doesn't suck too badly!
> 
> Also, please forgive any errors. It's late and my beta isn't expecting this (well, a little, but shh)

Steve paced his room. Not the one at Stark’s tower, but his own, safe apartment downtown.

He didn’t think he could ever go back there. Not permanently, at least. He even thought about quitting the team, but knew that what Tony did wasn’t the general population’s fault. They didn’t deserve to be put in danger like that.

But still. It was going to be a long time before he could communicate with his co-leader.  
-  
Tony knew that what he had said was unforgiveable. He knew that what he had with Steve was gone forever. He knew all of that.

But it was really Steve’s fault. He had blown it out of proportion. 

It didn’t mean that he had to like it or that he would stop trying to get Steve to just look at him again. It just soothed his ego a bit.  
-  
Meetings happened. The team gathered and fought. Captain America shouted orders at Iron Man.

Tony thought this meant that things were going to get better, maybe easier.

Except, he wasn’t Iron Man and Steve wasn’t Captain America. What they had was more than camaraderie, teamwork.

And if that didn’t break Tony’s heart even more.  
-  
He was plotting. Bruce could see that as they worked on the newest model of the Stark phone. Tony was distracted, but the doctor couldn’t bring himself to say anything. He had gotten the story from both sides and knew just how badly they had both fucked up.   
-  
Tony was drunk. Not his usual “I can still work” level of drunk, but onto his “I’m going to weep into Pepper’s unsuspecting ear at two in the morning” kind. Except he didn’t end up calling Pepper. He called Steve instead.  
“Tony, what’s wrong with you?” Steve asked after reluctantly answering to hear a familiar voice sobbing. “Are you drunk?”

“Pepper, I fucked up so badly this time,” Tony slurred to what he thought was his best friend. “I mean, I didn’t. Steve just found some old things from an ex on my computer and he thought I was still talking to her but I didn’t say anything about how it was stupid he was so jealous and Pep, I miss him so much. I don’t know what to do.”

Steve wanted to tell him to take a few aspirin and to go to bed. Oh boy did he want to. But he didn’t. He stayed on the line to hear what Tony had to say.

“I love him so much Pepper,” Tony continued through a drunken sob. “I just want him back here.” He said a few more things but they were unintelligible due to Tony’s inebriation.

“Goodnight Tony,” Steve whispered and hung up.  
-  
Steve texted Natasha the next morning to tell her to delete the call history from Tony’s phone.  
-  
“There’s a gala tonight to celebrate the Avengers’ saving New York,” Pepper said as she walked into Tony’s office with the papers. “It’s completely mandatory, yes Steve is going to be there, no you don’t even have to sit by him, I have you between Dr. Banner and Dr. Foster.”

Tony just blinked and shook off the fog of his latest hangover. “Fine. I’ll take another night of free booze, Bruce, and Jane. I might even challenge Thor to a drinking game.”

Pepper kissed his forehead and sashayed out of the room. “Just stay out of Asgard.”  
-  
Pepper lied. Pepper lied so badly that she was no longer Tony’s best friend. Pepper was fired.

Maybe not fired, but he definitely wouldn’t be talking to her for a long time.

Why? Because right across from Tony sat the former man of his dreams.

And by ‘former,’ he meant ‘current, forever and ever, irreplaceable man of his dreams.’

“Steve, why do you look so forlorn this eve?” Thor boomed across the table. “The alcohol flows heavily and the women are plentiful!”

Jane hit him lightly on the shoulder, scolding him for the last comment. Steve smiled slightly at her.

“I’m just not up for that kind of thing tonight, Thor,” he replied, trying to not look at Tony.

The sight of him tonight was heart wrenching. 

Sure, he looked very put together in his suit and unnecessary blue tinted sunglasses, but Steve could see beyond that. He could see the worn, tired lines around his mouth and eyes. He could see the bags from not sleeping. He wondered when the last time it was that Tony had slept a full amount.

He cleared his throat to get Tony’s attention. “How are you tonight, Stark?”

Tony’s breath caught in his throat. He thanked the god he didn’t believe in for the fact that Pepper decided to drag him away to dance.

“You are no longer fired,” he said as they slow danced to some Michael Bublé song.

“When did you fire me?” she asked, not shocked at all.

“I mentally fired you and condemned you to hell for placing me across from him.”

Pepper huffed a laugh. “You know it’s because Clint was called off to help Natasha at some undisclosed location.”

“And I still don’t know how they got out of this mandatory thing.”

They danced silently for a while. Tony was even having a sort of nice time. Then the song ended and he heard the bar calling his name.

“One scotch on the rocks please,” he told the barman.

“Make it two.”

He wasn’t really surprised to hear who it was behind him.

“Sure you can handle it super soldier?”

“Can’t I just talk to you like normal, Tony?”

He still couldn’t look at Steve. His voice sounded so tired and resigned.

He wasn’t sure if his neck would allow him to look any farther away, but damn it if Tony didn’t try.

“I can’t, Steve.”

He heard Steve leave.

Tony ordered another drink. Then another. Then another. Then Pepper intervened and pulled him to his seat. He wasn’t drunk, but he was definitely on that road.

Eventually, they were all called up to speak. Tony was slated to go, but Bruce was called up the last second when he kept dropping the cards Pepper gave him to read.

He left the main room and went into the men’s room where he was most assuredly not hiding because Tony Stark never hides.

Until Steve came in. Then he hid in the stall.

“Go away cap,” he said.

“Please just let me talk, Tony.”

“I can’t. I said some things that I can’t even forgive for myself for and you said some things I can’t forgive you for and it was a mess and I’m sorry and I can’t, okay? You trusted me and I blew it and I ruined it because that’s what I do.”

“Tony you didn’t ruin anything,” Steve assured him. “I got jealous over a stupid photo and let it get to me. I should’ve trusted you more.”

Tony made a sound in agreement. He leaned his head against the stall door and unlocked it.

They finally stood before each other, more naked and vulnerable than they had ever felt before.

Tony couldn’t handle it.

“We need to get back,” he muttered before he could say or do something he’d regret.

Steve, the ever-dutiful Avenger, nodded and turned to leave with the other man following.

“…we’d be lost out there without our leaders who have decided to finally join us,” Bruce said to the crowd. “Captain America and Iron Man are the men who single handedly keep this team together on and off the field. We’d be lost without their guidance and commitment to the team and to each other. Let’s give them a round of applause.”

The room roared. Tony, who had wandered back over to Pepper’s side, held a drink up in good nature while Steve saluted from his place near Agent Coulson.

They smiled at each other from their spots across the room.

They were going to be okay.


End file.
